Virginia is one of four states with no outside ethics investigation committee — only two legislative panels provide for the General Assembly’s conflict of interest supervision — leading to minimal and sometimes belated efforts at keeping legislators in check.
Only one Virginia legislator has been prosecuted for violating the state’s Conflict of Interest Act since its enactment in 1987. A jury convicted state representative Phil Hamilton, former vice chairman of the House appropriations committee, on bribery and extortion charges last May for earmarking $500,000 for a teacher education center at Old Dominion University in return for a $40,000-a-year position as its director. The arrangement went unnoticed for two years until the Virginian-Pilot revealed the deal.
Maryland also received a lackluster report card fresh off of two political scandals that have plagued public trust in the state’s government agencies. State Sen. Ulysses Currie chose not to disclose on state ethics forms that Shoppers Food Warehouse had paid him around $245,000 in exchange for five years spent pushing development deals on the company’s behalf. He was eventually acquitted on corruption charges, but the Senate recently voted unanimously to censure him.
Former Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson is heading to federal prison for a corruption conspiracy that netted him nearly $1 million in bribes. The state as a whole lacks a time limit on former executive branch employees before they can lobby the executive office, which has encouraged what many called a cozy public-private culture.
D.C. didn’t make it into the State Integrity Investigation, but that doesn’t mean its political shenanigans — most prominently the Harry Thomas Jr. fiasco — are escaping the public’s eye. Thomas pleaded guilty in January to funneling into his own pocket via intermediaries more than $350,000 in city funds intended for youth sports programs.
